Environmental Sustainability

With a rapidly growing population of 4.4 million, Kenya’s capital city of Nairobi and its surrounding areas are struggling to manage increased waste, which has coincided with limited management services. Plastic waste litters the sides of roads and vacant lots, destroying natural habitats, contaminating water and food sources and killing livestock.

Plastic waste pollutes the environment and poses health risks to those who live in nearby communities. Children in particular are vulnerable to the impacts of plastic pollution. They’re more likely to come into contact with plastic waste while playing, leading them to ingest or inhale microplastics, which can cause serious health problems.

Through our partnership with the Coca-Cola Foundation, ChildFund has been working with community members in Mukuru – a low-income informal settlement east of Nairobi City – to turn plastic waste into wealth generation. The Ksh18 million project, Tunawiri na Taka or Thriving through Waste Management, formed waste collection groups comprised of over 400 women and youth, and trained them in waste management and entrepreneurship while also linking them to waste recyclers. The project also equipped them with waste management tools and equipment, and personal protective gear and trained them on entrepreneurship.

As the women and youth collect discarded plastic in their communities, they have the opportunity to sell what they collect to waste recyclers who then use the plastic to create new products, hence earning a living.